Trigun: Gunman once again
by DarkestVampire
Summary: Slight AU, beginning after the Anime, leading into some kind of Manga story. After the sudden death of his brother, Vash is confronted with his old friend, comeing back from the grave to tell him he s not to live peacefully.. yet. VxM WxM No OCs.
1. Chapter 1

**1. The deserts of Gunsmoke**

Grand Eastern Wasteland

24 Iles from December

Stardate 1105

36 PM.

Two suns were burning thier rays onto his skin... for serval hours now.

136 degrees Fahrenheit, exactly.. but with the body heat of his brother over his shoulder, and under a black, armored suit, you could add a lot more.

Vashs sweat ran down his face, dripping down into the sand... it made a sharp noise, and the salty water was gone in a little cloud...

His dry gasps were slowly going faster, but weaker. Just like the effect you have when youre letting a flower stay in a microwave...

„Brother..." came an rough, quiet reply from Knives.

„Dont speak. Were just have to walk alittle more towards December." Vash muttered, mostly to himself, but also to his brother.

„No.. thats not what i mean..." his voice was seemingly growing stronger, but he was just mobilizeing his last resorts of strength.

„... what is it, then?" Vash replied after a sigh.

„.. the...the Angel Arm... it took too much enegy out of me. I wasnt prepared... you... you must have been the stronger one, after all.."

„What are you saying, Knives?!" Vash started, but shutted his mouth at Knives painful groan.

„... ill be gone soon, Vash. Its my own fault, too.." He stopped for a moment, but then spoke the one sentence he always wanted to say, but never had the guts to do so. „Vash... im sorry... i didnt wanted her to die..."

„Its alright Knives. She chosed the death by herself, i think." The gunman was quiet for a moment, but then looked over his shoulder. „Dont you...?"

Knives didnt respond. His brain stopped functioning, along with his heart, which died down.

Vashs eyes widened, before he let out a loud, long scream of terror.

Millons Knives, his own brother, was dead.

Much further away, in a secret room twenty foot under the ground level, a dead body reawakened.

The cold bones and veins, the muscles, the tissue and organs, regained a painful new life.

His grey eyes opened slowly, and even through the blurry sight, he could still acknowlege the man before him.

„... Chapel Evergreen.." escaped his lips.

The man nodded, makeing his long beard move along.

„Yes, yes Nicholas... isnt it nice to meet again? It has been serval years since we last did..."

The slow, soft voice of the old man wasnt careing at all. It was simple acting.

Wolfwood slowly sat up, looking around in the room.

„Where am i?" he asked, without looking at his real mentor.

„The Eyes headquarter. But down in the dungons. Just a few Iles away from where we found your body."

His body?... Wolfwood started to remember... he was battleing... and got killed.

He. got. Killed. These three words were hard to comprehend, considering that he seemed to be very alive.

But there were more important matters to clear up with.

„What do you want from me, Evergreen?" Wolfwood asked, glareing at the man.

„Its a quite simple mission i have in mind for you. In exchange for your new life, you must find Vash the Stampede and inform him that the Eye is comeing to kill him. Thats the first part. The second is, you are not to interfere any battles that involve an member of us, but you have to keep him alive at all costs until he meets me. Thats all i need from you, it would simply be too dangerous for me to tell him myself. And he thrusts you the most."

Wolfwood lowered his head. That didnt sound too bad. And if he would do that, he could see his girl again.

„Alright. But i have to ask you one favor, Chapel." Wolfwood looked up again, „After this mission, i need to be free. I dont want to be a member anymore."

Chapel raised an eyebrow. „Is that what you really want, Nicholas?"

„Yes. That is my only request for this. Ive killed people far too often and too much now. I want to settle down and retire. Thats all i need."

Chapel sighed, but nodded. „So be it. The Eye has spoken, may God be with you, son."

5th Town of Gunsmoke

December City

Stardate 1105

07 PM

"So what do you think, Milly... when will Vash come back?"

The question of the short girl flew across the room, like it didn´t matter to Milly at all.

Something happened... she had some sort of connection with Wolfwood ever since he died, but now... something or someone broke that link of the two. She didn´t want to admit it, but she was worried.

Now, after Meryl poked her shoulder, Milly Thompson looked up.

"Huh? Wha... Sorry, ive must have fallen asleep for a minute... what did you say?"

The shorter, dark haired girl sighed and started again. "Vash. When do you think he will be back here."

Milly shruged, having not a clude at all. "I dunno, its thirty iles from here, afterall.. and that way goes double as he must come back..." She didnt want to worry Meryl as well, but it was no use.. the look on her face was clear.

"I just hope hes going to be alright, Milly. I dunno why, but somehow id care more than usual about this good-for-nothing gunman.. and his brother must be his worst enemy of all." she said, looking to the ground.

Milly gave her a pat on the back, and a quick hug. "He will be back, Meryl... thats the kind of guy Mr. Vash is."


	2. Chapter 2

Great Eastern Wasteland

10 iles from December

Stardate 1105

19.45 PM

He never felt so exausted in his whole life... the suns, the heat, the weight that seemed on his shoulders..

Knives was buried behind him, in a simple grave with a cross drawn on top of it.. hed knew, the first wind would let it disappear... at least he tried to.

His left arm was twitching, sparks flew out and spread around the desert...

His protestic had been shot twice, but not only that, under this heat and with sand in the mechanics, all kinds of computers would break sooner or later. You cant expect a machine to work under these conditions.

Finally, it gave a last roar from a servo motor, then it hung down like a dead limb... nothing more and nothing less than it actually was.

Vash sighned, then exposed his bare arm stump... takeing the bolts out of the cut, he dropped the fake arm onto the ground and moved on.

Another twenty kilos off... but still, it got harder and harder to move... on top of that, it slowly got dark.

After a while, he couldnt tell anymore... was it him, or... the world went black around him. He felt the hard sand as he fell... and he couldnt move anymore...

Vash blacked out.

Twenty iles away, Wolfwood gave off a deep sigh...

„Damn Needle noggin. I let him borrow my cross, i gave him advice, i helped him to win, and thats the thanks i get?!" growling, he picked up the Punisher from the rubby ground, dusted it off and threw it into the passager cabin of his bike.

„I bet it even has scratches now. Damn him. Damn him and his brother. And look at this, does he even think throwing his stupid gun away?!"

Vashs Colt Eagle was lieing next to the black one Knives owned.. in his, there was still a bullet left, leaveing no question about the gunmans decision.

„Great, now i gotta carry that monster around with me again. And not only that, i gotta get both. And not only that! Look at it. Its so overused... that would mean, Frank Murlon has another repairing to do... Damn you Vash.."

Just seconds after this swearing, the two revolvers joined the Cross Punisher, then Nicolas continued to ride his bike, muttering things to himself.

„Ill find you, Vash the Stampede.. we need to have a serious talk together."

Just half an hour later, Wolfwood stood before this so called legend...

He looked horrible at the moment.

With just one arm, dry wounds which had soaked his armor with blood, and pieces of kevlar hänging down wherever Knives shot him.

"Finally found you, idiot.. I even come back to life to meet you, and you cant even give me a warm welcome." Nicholas signed, lightening a cigarette. "Guess I have to give you a lift."

Grabbing Vash under his armpits, he dragged him over to his bike, then dropping him in the sidewagon, gasping. "Never knew that guy was that skinny." he muttered sarcastically before he got on the bike himself. There were no time to loose.

Serval hours later, Vash awoke with dizzyness, thanks to the cold air that surrounded him as they raced across the sand.

"W.wha..." he started, looking around slowly.

"I guess you didnt make it all the way, Needle noggin. Better luck next time."

Blinking, he slowly came to his senses... there was only one person that called him this way.

"Wolfwood?!"

"Heh, I bet you missed me already, you stupid idiot." Nicholas said, concentrateing on driving.

"So, how was your two way trip to heaven, preacherman?" was the first question.

"Supriseingly boring, since I dont remember anything. Just what happened before I died." the annoyed reply didnt cut off Vashs flood of questions.

"And how exactly did you trick the death?"

A sigh wasnt an answer, so Wolfwood decided to talk instead. "Thats a long story.. but Ill have to tell it anyway."

"Tell ahead the... wait a moment, how long have we been driving? Are we close to December yet?" asked Vash.

"We arent going to December. Were going to Dankin town."

Vash blinked many times, then tried to turn around on the uncomfortable Cross Punisher, but ended up almost tripping over something else that seemed metallic.

An melodic sound of metal was the reply.. he knew that sound.

"... why did you bring my gun along, Wolfwood." Vash had gotten serious.

"Youll need it. Gunsmoke never changes. And besides... theres something I need to tell you. That also covers the question about how I got back to life."

"Spill it, then."

Sighing, Wolfwood took another cigarette and lit it up, then began to tell the whole story.

"The eye is after you, Vash. The Eye of Micheal. Remember the eleventh Gung ho Gun? That Preacher with the Punisher like weapon? He was one of them, and even though he adopted and trained me, I was raised by another man who called himself Chapel Evergreen. I thought he was dead, I shot him fatally and escaped the Eye as it was trying to make me an even more sucessful killing machine, but somehow, he suvived.. I took his title of Chapel, unknowning that he was still alive, and traveled around like a priest. I helped people while I tried to forget my past.. but then, this man showed up again, and told me that Evergreen was alive, though he had suffered intense ingurys and lost both legs. He forced me to work for the eye again, and told me about Knives plan. You know the Rest from then on..."

Vash listened, trieing hard not to cry... another awful story.

"I tried to kill one of their members, so I thought I would be useless to the Eye from then on. But it wasnt like that... Evergreen used a plants power to revive me, and promised me that I would be free after I complete a last mission... Vash, he wants you dead and im supposed to tell you that. Im also to be assureing that you suvive until youre face to face with Evergreen, but if you get into an battle with an member of the Eye, I can do nothing but watch. Thats all he told me. I know hes lieing, but thats not too bothersome, is it?"

"So thats why you took my gun.. " Vash sighed.

"Not only yours. Your brother´s, too. Youre going to need it." added Wolfwood.

".. Didnt you see that my protestic arm broke? How am I supposed to shoot two guns with one arm?!"

After half an hour of agurementing, things calmed down about the two again.

"So, why are we going to Dankin town?"

"Frank Murlon. You used that gun way too much, and Knives gun doesnt look good, either. Hes not going to be happy about it, but we need him to fix them both." said Nicholas.

"But still, I dont think that I can get another fake arm from somewhere." complained Vash.

"Then were going to take your old one and attach it to you again."

"Alright, now you are completely nuts, you freaking hypocrite."


End file.
